National Six-Pack XI: Northumberland Ale, Church-Key, ON

It has been a while since I have done a National Six-Pack review, my effort to find the best Canadian pale ale...well, mostly pale ales. The other day I was heading back along the north shore of Lake Ontario when I hit the rolling hills of Northumberland County when I thought I'd head inland for a few of the finest from Church-Key Brewing. Though this small brewer is not distributed widely, I have sipped their Northumberland Pale Ale on draught when I visited St. Veronus in Peterborough late this summer as well as at Atomica on Brock Street here in Kingston.

The beer pours the colour of varnished pine. This is a good thing. I often say straw and amber and need to mix it up when I describe colours. It is a fairly active brew in terns of carbonation but leaves only a white rim. There is a funkiness to this ale that makes me think of a Legion Hall in rural Pictou County, Nova Scotia and the smell of Moosehead's Ten Penny Ale or maybe even a boilermaker. This, too, is a good thing as real ale-y pale ales are the resort of such gents. The whisky funkiness is born of the bread crusty graininess of the pale malt, the tangy yeast of choice as well as a hop selection that is perhaps not noble. This is a modern take on the model of Canadian aleness that existed before macro-ales took over. It is excellent. Beer your great-uncle would have approved of after a day out hunting. The brewer acknowledges that this is where he is going with the ale:

Our original brew, in fact some just call it "Church-Key". This Stock Ale was designed to be a throw back to the tavern ales of the 40s and 50s...

I am simply stunned at the poor reviews at the Beer Advocate. As I have determined that there is a style of Canadian pale ale - though the efforts and investigations made under the banner of the National Six-Pack - it may be that these few commentators do not understand the intention here. It also appears that some pubs have called it a brown ale adding to the confusion. They have a problem with fruitiness in the malt, the presence of a grainy taste and tangy yeast. To many who like beer these things are called flavour.

Sad. If I were you I would drive to Campbellford, go north-east a bit and find the church. Expect something bigger and tastier and you'll have started off on the right foot. Wear a rat jacket and a hat and you'll like it even better.

Maureen Ogle said this about the book: "... immensely readable, sometimes slightly surreal rumination on beer in general and craft beer in particular. Funny, witty, but most important: Smart. The beer geeks will likely get all cranky about it, but Alan and Max are the masters of cranky..."

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I have moved the content of the OCB Commentary Wiki here. It is now a static document and pretty much is locked in as understandings existed as of 2012. Probably needs its own wiki to update the content! Below are the original introductory remarks:

"The purpose of this wiki is to collectively make comments, add annotation, identify errata and suggest further sources to the text of The Oxford Companion to Beer. Members are asked to avoid comment about the authors, the structure of the text or other extraneous matters. This wiki is a not for profit project that reviews the text pursuant to the concept of "fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review" under Canadian copyright law." Alan McLeod, wiki Organizer, and chief bottle washer at A Good Beer Blog. Motto? "Many hands make pleasant work." Alan McLeod, 25 October 2011. Please provide some information about yourself when making a request to join the wiki. Anonymous requests for membership will not be approved. Overly ardent and rudely put claims to authority will be cause for removal from the membership. As of 11 January 2012, 134 entries or 12.2% of the total of 1,100 received commentary, many with multiple comments. Eight of the photos have been corrected as well. That number rose to 151 by 13 May 2012.